Dudley Randall
Dudley Randall (January 14, 1914 - August 5, 2000) was an African-American poet and publisher. Life Overview Randall founded a publishing company called Broadside Press in 1965, which published many leading African American writers. His most famous poem is "The Ballad of Birmingham", written during the 1960s, about the 1963 bombing of the church Martin Luther King, Jr. belonged to in Birmingham, Alabama. Life Youth and education Randall was born in Washington D.C., the son of Arthur George Clyde (a Congressional Minister) and Ada Viola (a teacher) Randall. His family moved to Detroit from Washington D.C. in 1920. He developed an interest in poetry during his school years. At the age of thirteen, his very first published poem appeared in the Detroit Free Press. He married Ruby Hudson in 1935. Later he married Mildred Pinckney in 1942, but this marriage dissolved too. In 1957, he married Vivian Spencer. He worked in a foundry of the Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan from 1932 to 1937. He then worked as a clerk at a Post Office in Detroit from 1938 to 1943. He also served in military during World War II. He was working at a post office while he was attending Wayne State University in Detroit. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English in 1949 from there. He completed his Master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Michigan in 1951. Career He worked as a librarian at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, then at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland. Finally in 1956, he returned to Detroit, and worked at the Wayne County Federated Library System as head of the reference-inter loan department. He wrote his famous poem, The Ballad of Birmingham, in response to the 1963 bombing of a Baptist church in which 4 girls were killed. Randall established the Broadside Press in 1965. The 1st collection by the press was Poem Counterpoem (1966). He then published Cities Burning (1968) in response to a riot in Detroit. It was a group of 13 poems. Another 14 poems appeared in Love You in 1970, followed by More to Remember in 1971 and After the Killing in 1973. Some of his well-known works are: Ballad of Birmingham, A poet is not a Jukebox, Booker T. and W.E.B., ''and The Profile on the Pillow.'' He died on August 5, 2000, in Southfield, Michigan. Writing Randall's poetry is characterized by simplicity and realism. Recognition Composer Hans Werner Henze used the words of Randall's poem Roses and Revolutions in his 1973 song cycle Voices. Randall was appointed Poet laureate of the city of Detroit in 1981. Publications Poetry *''Dressed all in Pink''. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1965. *''Ballad of Birmingham: On the bombing of a church in Birmingham''. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1965. * Poem Counterpoem (with Margaret Danner). Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1966. * Cities Burning. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1968. * Love You. London: Paul Breman, 1970. * More to Remember: Poems of four decades. Chicago: Third World Press, 1971. * After the Killing. Chicago: Third World Press, 1973. * A Litany of Friends: New and selected poems. Detroitm MI: Lotus Press, 1981. Non-fiction *''Broadside Memories: Poets I have known''. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1975. Collected editions *''Roses and Revolutions: The selected writings of Dudley Randall'' (edited by Melba Joyce Boyd). Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2009. Edited * For Malcolm: Poems on the life and the death of Malcolm X (edited with Margaret Taylor Burroughs). Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1967. * Black Poetry: A supplement to anthologies which exclude black poets. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1969. * Black Poets. New York: Bantam, 1971. * Golden Song: The fiftieth anniversary anthology of the Poetry Society of Michigan (edited with Louis J. Cantoni). Detroit, MI: Harlo, 1985. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Dudley Randall, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 20, 2015. Audio / video *''Randall Reads 'Cities Burning' '' (cassette). Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1968. *''Margaret Danner and Dudley Randall read 'Poem / Counterpoem' '' (reel-to-reel). Detroit, MI: Broadside Press, 1969. See also *African-American poets *List of U.S. poets *List of American book publishers References External links ;Poems *Dudley Randall 1914-2000 at the Poetry Foundation *Dudley Randall: Online Poems *Dudley Randall at PoemHunter (9 poems) ;Audio / video *Dudley Randall at YouTube ;Books *Dudley Randall at Amazon.com ;About *Dan Gutstein on Dudley Randall at Beltway: A poetry quarterly *Dudley Randall (1914-2000) at Modern American Poetry Category:1914 births Category:2000 deaths Category:African American poets Category:Writers from Michigan Category:American poets Category:People from Detroit, Michigan Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Wayne State University alumni Category:Poets Laureate of Detroit Category:American book publishers (people)